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Hello, everybody! You know, people usually say that kids shouldn’t play video games a lot because they can be addicting. And I really never believed that until my mom became addicted.
My name is Jerry, I`m 12 years old and I love to play games on my phone. I really love this one strategic game. I built my own city, I was at war with one of the players, and I even created alliances with others. Okay, I know I spend too much time playing this game. But what am I supposed to do? I'm not that popular at school and I don`t have a lot of friends. So, naturally, I spend whole days playing. Including during class. And that was the main reason why my mom was called to school. Oh my gosh, I was so afraid when this happened. My mom works a lot, and she had to take time off to come to school, so I was waiting for a huge punishment. My teacher told her that I was developing a gaming addiction, and that it was necessary for her to take urgent measures. But to my surprise, my mom didn't scold me. She knew that I was lonely and didn't mind that I had fun sometimes. But, of course, we had to set some limits: I wouldn`t play in the classroom and I had to improve my academic performance. I'm still very grateful to my mom for how she treated me.
A couple of weeks later, there was a special offer from my game - bring a friend and get ten rubies. Ten! Can you imagine? I could finally improve the town hall! Okay, that probably doesn't mean anything to you, so just know - it's a lot! But the thing is that I didn`t have friends I could invite. So I waited until that evening when my mom came home from work, took her phone, and installed the game. At dinner, my mother noticed that her phone was constantly chirping - the game sends notifications. I was a little embarrassed, but I told my mother that I installed game on her phone to get a bonus, and I braced myself for a lecture about the fact that you shouldn`t touch other people's things. But this conversation didn't quite go as I expected - my mom actually perked up a little bit. She began to ask me about the game. I guess she was just taking an interest in me, and that made me very happy.
A few days later, I was sitting in class, and it was really boring. But I tried my best to learn chemistry, no matter how stupid I thought it was! It was hard to focus, because my phone was constantly vibrating in my pocket. I knew it was the game, and I tried to not react. I had promised, you know. But at some point my patience ran out. I took out my phone and saw a bunch of messages in the game. And they were all from my mom! She was asking for some resources. Ha ha! I texted her, "I didn't expect you to want to play this." She responded, "Sometimes it's the most interesting way to kill a little time." And after a little pause, "Where are my resources?!" Wow, I was so glad my mom started playing with me! It`s unbelievable, but we actually started to communicate more thanks to this game! Cool!
But after a month of this, everything went wrong. Mom got the flu, and the doctors put her on bedrest for the whole week. And that was one hell of a week! After school I had to take care of my mom, cook, go shopping, and do house stuff all by myself. I know that I`m the only man in the house, and that I should take care about everything, but I`m also only 12 years old. So naturally, in one week our house turned into a mess. During this week, mom spent an enormous amount of time playing the game. She said that she had nothing else to do, and that it helped time pass faster. Then I thought, "OK, Why not?"
Finally, my mother recovered. But when I woke up on Monday with hopes that my mom was ready to go back to work and start doing things around the house again, I found her still lying in bed and playing on her phone! I said, "Hey mom, don't you have to go to work?" But she replied that she still wasn't feeling well, and that she was going to stay at home for a couple more days. It was obvious that she wasn't sick anymore. I said, "Mom, you have to get up! Our house is a mess! I`m tired of eating cereal every day! You have to do something!" But these words just made her angry. She yelled at me and sent me to school. But my mom would never do this. Something was wrong. And then I realized that she had another reason to stay in bed – she wanted to play the game. So gaming addiction is real! And now my own mother was suffering from it.
For days, I tried to talk her into going back to work, but every time, she just ended up yelling at me. I felt powerless. We lived together, but we only saw each other once a day when my mother gave me money to buy food...
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